


man and beast

by thetealord



Category: Final Fantasy XV
Genre: Canon-Typical Violence, Implied Beastiality, M/M, sort of another fairytale au
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-05-03
Updated: 2017-05-03
Packaged: 2018-10-27 19:00:11
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 486
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/10814841
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/thetealord/pseuds/thetealord
Summary: They sat, curled together beneath the boughs of a great oak, waiting for the rain to pass. The soldier-turned-hunter rested his back against his partner’s side. His partner, who had once been a man, and was now a great beast-like daemon.





	man and beast

**Author's Note:**

> There was some talk in slime chat a while back about an au where Ardyn is a beast-like daemon and I said I might write something about it eventually and 'eventually' happened to be 'today in the middle of work when I was kinda bored and struck with inspiration'.

“Do you remember when we met, Cor?” the beast rumbled, voice still smooth as silver despite the grating tone as he spoke using a wolf’s tongue.

They sat, curled together beneath the boughs of a great oak, waiting for the rain to pass. The soldier-turned-hunter rested his back against his partner’s side. His partner, who had once been a man, and was now a great beast-like daemon. His fur was black and thick, his legs ended in hooves, his shoulders covered in spines, his tail like a dragon’s, and wicked horns emerged from his brow and the top of his head, but he had soft wolf-like ears and a dog’s snout, his teeth all knife sharp.

_He remembered, indeed, the day the beast had crawled and collapsed just outside the door of his cabin. It had been pouring rain then, too, and he’d been covered in blood, near death. There were shouts in the distance, the voices of the men hunting him, but Cor knew they wouldn’t come looking much further. They never bothered him anymore, in his cabin, the place he’d chosen to spend his exile._

_He took the beast in, even then not knowing for sure who it was, and even though it wasn’t exactly easy to assist a creature nearly as large as a small horse. But inside, by the warmth of the fire, he’d tended to the beast’s wounds, had brought him back from the brink. And when the beast spoke to him, he’d known it was Ardyn, his beloved, cursed king._

_“What happened to you?” he’d whispered, and the beast had replied, that the changes had finally taken shape, that this was his curse, for healing the sick. That he’d been run out of his own kingdom._

“No,” Ardyn said, turning to stare at him with one glowing amber eye. “Not that day, Cor. When we were children.”

“Oh,” Cor laughed. “Yes. That, I remember well, too.” He put a hand on the beast’s snout, gently rubbed his fingers along the ridges over one of his eyes, stroked the fur across his cheek. “You were a prince, and I was a soldier’s son, and they told us we couldn’t play together.”

The beast giggled. “Yes.” He grinned, all glinting teeth. “That was the day I was remembering just now. That day, in my gardens.” He sighed. “I do miss those days.”

“I do, too,” Cor muttered, running his fingers through the fur around the beast’s neck, and Ardyn turned his head and licked his cheek affectionately.

Nothing they’d ever tried had cured this curse. No fairytale kisses or magic charms or spells could relieve him of the burden of being changed into a monster. But Cor, who had been run out of the Kingdom, too, for staying by his side, wasn’t about to leave him because of it.

He knew they would find a way, no matter how long it took.


End file.
